Baku / 02.05.17 / Turan: The authorities of Azerbaijan seem to eliminate totally the freedom of the press and the word. However, it can be done only for a while, it is impossible to completely suppress it, said Rovshan Hajibayli, editor of the Azadlig newspaper, in an interview with the Cətin sual program (Difficult issue) of the Turan agency.

Commenting on the situation with freedom of the press in Azerbaijan on the eve of World Press Freedom Day, celebrated on May 3, he noted that the situation is so deplorable that it is difficult to talk about the existence of freedom of the press in general. Eloquent indicator is the lawsuit filed by the Ministry of Communications with the demand to block the opposition Internet resources.

"The mysterious death of the blogger Mehman Galandarov in the pre-trial jail and attempts to hide it from the public, the secret funeral is also an indicator of the country's attitude towards freedom of expression," the journalist said. According to Hajibeyli, the systematic destruction of press freedom has been going on since 2000. During this period there were also murders of journalists, and the closure of newspapers, a radio station, and now the blocking of websites.

"Apparently the authorities set a goal that there should not be any freedom of expression in the country at all. But freedom of speech can be temporarily restricted. Finally, it is impossible to silence critical voices," the journalist said.

Thus, the authorities were able to stop the production of the printed version of the newspaper Azadlyg, but continues to publish its online version. In bloom, critical voices moved to the Internet, social networks. This process will only increase in the future, and civil journalism and blogging will only intensify.

"The greater is the persecution for criticism, the more it will sound. On the other hand, information has no borders and it is impossible to isolate Azerbaijan from the outside world, no matter how much the authorities want it," Hajibayli said. In his opinion, in order to completely suppress freedom of speech, it is necessary to turn Azerbaijan into North Korea. -06B-